Asylum Seekers (2009)

The PrologueWe are taking a trip to the nuthouse with this movie dealing with a few crazy people in a little film called, Asylum Seekers. Put out to the world from those fine people over at Breaking Glass Pictures, I wasn’t sure what I was getting into when I popped this one into my trusty player. Needless to say, what I got wasn’t what I had thought or hoped I would get. What fallows is a bit complex to put into words, but it’s very strange, I can tell you that. And it gets even stranger when it tries to be funny. I guess I should just skip the jibber jabber and just go right into the review at this point.

The MovieWork, deadlines, family, terrorism, information overload… As modern life pushes the world to the brink of madness, six strangers decide there’s only one sane response: head through the door marked EXIT. It leads to a deluxe, exclusive, luxuriously-appointed mental asylum where a staff will wait on them hand and foot for the rest of their carefree lives. The problem? The asylum has only one vacancy. Now, the group of would-be patients will have to prove who among them is truly most deranged. Of course, not everything in the asylum is as it seems, and as the applicants turn themselves over for evaluation, they learn that the insanity has just begun.

I won’t lie, it’s a bit goofy and a whole lot weird. The film tries very hard at times to be cool and funny, but ultimately it just doesn’t work. For starters our characters are all very cartoonish and they have their own gimmicks. Like one’s a younger woman who is a tech wizard. One is an older man who’s all about conspiracy, and so on and so forth. This would be fine and dandy if this was a film that was more of a childish nature. But even the Breaking Glass site lists it as a horror film. And in that type of environment it just doesn’t work.

Things take a turn in this movie that would lead us to believe that we are seeing an adult version of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory with some mystical person known as “The Beard” in the role of what could pass for this film’s Willie Wanka. But again, like I was saying before, things are just too weird and out of left field for any adults to really enjoy what is going on. I can appreciate what they were going for. I even think a character or two is semi-interesting. I’ll go one step future and say a little love story that breaks out between two of the crazies is kinda cool. But overall it just doesn’t seem to work.

The actors give it their all, the sets at least look pretty cool, but this just wasn’t my cup of tea. I won’t bury it or the idea of it, but when I take a look at what I saw in this film I just gotta call a spade a spade and say there just wasn’t anything here for me. It looks nice but it lacks substance. It’s very character driven, but those characters seemed like they’d be a better fit re-tuned and in some juvenile film rather than something aimed for adults like this. If you like stuff that’s a whole lot on the weird and goofy side then this is for you. If you’re like me and that doesn’t sound good to you, then you may wanna pass on it.

The ConclusionI didn’t really like this one at all, but if you like weird and erratic films, then CLICK HERE and give it a go. I like stuff that is “out there” but this was a little too out there for my personal taste. But that being said, I will admit that it looks nice and the people give it their all that are in it.